Exercise 3.37

Read the excerpt below. Then answer the questions using complete sentences. 

The End of Something [excerpt]

by Ernest Hemmingway

“There’s our old ruin, Nick,” Marjorie said.

Nick, rowing, looked at the white stone in the green trees.

“There it is,” he said.

“Can you remember when it was a mill?” Marjorie asked.

“I can just remember,” Nick said.

“It seems more like a castle,” Marjorie said.

Nick said nothing. They rowed on out of sight of the mill, following the shore line. Then Nick cut across the bay.

“They aren’t striking,” he said.

“No,” Marjorie said. She was intent on the rod all the time they trolled, even when she talked. She loved to fish. She loved to fish with Nick.

1.  What time frames (tense/aspect) are being used here? _________________________________________________

2. What effect did the change in time frames have on you as a reader? 

Exercise 3.38

Edit the sentences below to match the time frame given. Keep the positive sentences positive and the negative sentences negative. These sentences are from or have been adapted from A Horseman in the Sky by Ambrose Bierce. 

Change to the past

1. No country is so wild.

2. It goes over the cliff. 

3. Almost at the same instant he will hear a crashing sound in the trees--a sound that will die without an echo--and all will be still. 

4. It will not occur to him.

Change to the present

5. One sunny afternoon in the autumn of the year 1861, a soldier laid in a clump of laurel by the side of a road in Western Virginia.

6. The sergeant did not understand.

7. He was the son of wealthy parents.

8. The commander, knowing better, will smile. 

Change to the future

9. Men make it a theater of war.

10. It was not for long.

11. We speak further of the matter.

12.  It was possible. 

Exercise 3.39

What is the tense and aspect of the verbs in the sentences below? Write the name of the tense and aspect on the line provided. These sentences or clauses are from or have been adapted from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. 

Example: present progressive They are putting their Christmas presents away.

1. _______________ Her eyes were shining brilliantly...

2. _______________  While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second...

3. _______________ A gray cat was walking a gray fence in a gray backyard

4. _______________ She will be repairing the ravages made to her hair by generosity added to love. 

5. _______________ He will be staring at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face. 

6. _______________ Jim is looking about the room curiously.

Exercise 3.40

Part A

Brainstorm as many active verbs as you can on the lines below. 

Part B

Choose 5 of the active verbs you brainstormed and use each of them in a sentence that uses progressive aspect. You can use past, present, or future progressive verb forms to write your sentences. 

Optional: Use the 5 sentences you wrote to create a funny story. Write a 1-page story that uses the 5 sentences from part 2. 

Exercise 3.41

What is the tense and aspect of the verbs in the sentences below? Write the name of the tense and aspect on the line provided. These sentences or clauses are from or have been adapted from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. 

1. _______________  Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. 

2. _______________   And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. 

3. _______________ Perhaps you have seen a pier glass in an $8 flat.

4. _______________ Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

5. _______________  Many a happy hour she will have spent planning for something nice for him.

6. _______________ Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. 

Exercise 3.42

Edit the underlined verbs in the sentences below to match the tense, aspect, and positivity/negativity given.

1. present perfect negative: I had been to France before, so I am excited to go on this trip.

2. past perfect positive: Susan will not have finished the project by that time.

3. future perfect negative: The dog has barked every day while waiting for his owner to come home. 

4. past perfect negative: They have tried all the sushi at the restaurant, so they ordered two new kinds.

5. present perfect positive: Nancy had baked cakes for weddings before, but this wedding cake was especially challenging.

6. future perfect positive: The couple had danced for two hours together by the time the party ends, but they were so in love they did not notice the time passing.

Exercise 3.43

Fill in the missing part of the verb phrase to complete the sentence with the given tense and aspect. 

1. present perfect progressive

     I have __________ want___ a new hat for a while now. 

2. present perfect progressive

     They __________ been asking for the store manager for ten minutes now. 

3. past perfect progressive

     We __________ been rid___ the train for three hours.

4. past perfect progressive

     Mary and Jane had __________ joking when they said they wanted to eat fifty cheesecakes. 

5. future perfect progressive

     Tom __________ have __________ working here for eight years as of next Tuesday.

6. future perfect progressive

     I will __________ __________ studying for thirty minutes at three o'clock. 

Exercise 3.44

Use the base verb below to create a sentence in each of the possible tense-aspect combinations. You should write 12 sentences in total. 

Base verb = help

1. present 

2. present progressive

3. present perfect

4. present perfect progressive

5. past

6. past progressive

7. past perfect

8. past perfect progressive

9. future

10. future progressive

11. future perfect

12. future perfect progressive

Exercise 3.45

Read the short story excerpt below. Then write 1 paragraph critiquing the author's use of tense and aspect. You can use the questions listed below to help you brainstorm before writing your answer:

• What time frame is the author using to write?
• Is there a mix of tenses? Are there any sections that are only one tense?
• What information is being expressed in the past tense section(s)?
• What information is being expressed in the present tense section(s)?
• What information is being expressed in the future tense section(s)?
• Are there any progressive section(s)?
• Are there any perfect section(s)?
• What do you think about the author's use of tense and aspect?

The Gift of the Magi [excerpt]

by O. Henry

     One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

   ...

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

     “Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about me. I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first.”

     White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

     For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims—just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

     But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!” ...

Exercise 3.46

Part A

Edit the following paragraph from a short story. Correct any underlined errors with tense or aspect. Rewrite the corrected version of the paragraph. This paragraph has been adapted for this exercise from Omnilingual [excerpt] by H. Beam Piper.

Martha Dane pause, looking up at the purple-tinged copper sky. The wind shift since noon, while she been inside, and the dust storm that was sweep the high deserts to the east now blowing out over Syrtis. The sun, magnified by the haze, were a gorgeous magenta ball, as large as the sun of Terra, at which she could look directly. Tonight, some of that dust would come sifting down from the upper atmosphere to add another film to what had burying the city for the last fifty thousand years.

Part B

Reflect on your thinking. Consider these questions:

• What did you think about when you edited the paragraph?
• How did you approach correcting the errors?
• Was your editing process effective (successful)?
• Was your editing process efficient (timely)? 
• Would you change your editing process in any way next time?

Exercise 3.47

Part A

Write the start of a short story. In one paragraph your reader should know your setting, character, and the problem the character faces. Use only one tense in your paragraph to practice keeping a time focus. A blank brainstorming list has been given to help you plan your short story.

• Setting:
• Character:
• Problem:
• Solution:

Part B

1. Read the beginning of your short story to a partner and listen to their start of a short story.

2. Discuss the following questions with your partner. How did you approach the challenge of writing with a specific time focus compared to your partner? Did you both pick the same tense or a different tense?

3. Explain to your partner why you picked the tense that you did. 

Bonus: Swap stories starts with your partner. Write the rest of their story. After you are done share what you wrote and listen to how they ended your short story. Did you have the same ending in mind when you wrote the start of your own short story? Why did you choose to create the ending that you did?

Exercise 3.48

Write a three-paragraph short story set in your hometown with someone you know as the main character. Use tense and aspect purposefully to tell the story in your own author voice. What tense/aspect or combination of multiple tenses/aspects will you use? A blank outline has been given to help you plan your short story.